Skids and Mudflap hadn't spoken since Sideswipe left. They thought they were alone, but couldn't be sure from the mysterious noises they heard coming from all different directions in the dark. The twins wouldn't even try to comfort each other through their bond. It wouldn't help. When they both silently confirmed the mysterious noises to be footsteps, being alone was no longer their worry. They were definitely not alone. There was another mech out there who's footsteps wandered all over. Mudflap, who was smart enough to enhance his audio receptor's hearing range, pinpointed approximately where the footsteps were coming from and where they were going. Whoever the footsteps belonged to wasn't lost. He didn't walk in circles as if he were lost. But he did seem unsure of his destination. 'Must be a scout. Or worse, a hunter.' Mudflap thought to himself. Literally. He processed his thoughts within his own private conscious so Skids would not hear them and feel any more worried.
The door to the rec. room slid open with a creak. Ordinarily, no one would have noticed the creak over all of the usual commotion in the rec. room. But in the dead silence, the creak scared the sparks out of both of them. They jumped at the sound but quickly froze before either of them could let out a startled noise. The footsteps entered the room carefully and shut the door behind them. There was a moment of silence, then a CRASH! And another! Skids and Mudflap couldn't see from under the desk, and they didn't dare look out to see. Mudflap hugged one arm around Skids' chest, pulled him closer to Mudflap's side of the desk, and pushed him farther to the back. Skids started to whine from the movement on his aching wounds. Mudflap stopped moving him immediately and pulled his brother into a tight hug. The tightness was unexpected and silenced Skids. Mudflap still hugged his brother.
"Please!" Mudflap whispered. "Please don't scream!" Skids wondered why Mudflap would whisper so quietly. It wasn't like the intruder was connected to their bond. But it didn't take long to connect with Mudflap. Mudflap's voice shook in a whisper from fear and concern for him. Skids leaned his head in closer to Mudflap's shoulder to show he understood. Mudflap scooted Skids farther back under the desk as gently as he could, but Skids' pain still flared. Skids clutched Mudflap's shoulder with one hand and squeezed his free hand into a fist. He fought the urge to scream until Mudflap let go of one of his legs a little too quickly. Skids desperately cried to relive some of the tension! Mudflap slapped his hand over Skids' mouth! The slap came down with such force, it almost hurt Skids. But he never held it against Mudflap. Mudflap was scared stiff and wasn't thinking clearly. "So sorry! Jus' please stay quiet Skids!" Mudflap begged.
The destruction continued on just a few feet away. The intruder was without a doubt searching for them and was going to ransack the place and tear the walls down until he found them! Mudflap crawled over his brother to position himself like a shield in front of Skids. The pounding noises got closer. Now Skids and Mudflap could see debris of the transformer sized furniture flying across the room and slamming against the wall! Soon the mech was in sight! His purple paint shimmered in what little moonlight the windows let in. His red optics were searching, possibly scanning. The read light turned in the twins' direction and stalked towards them!
"Hide yur optics! Hide yur optics!" Mudflap commanded. He turned his back on the Decepticon and Skids covered his face with his arm. Mudflap didn't know if the Decepticon had already seen the light of their optics, but he sure wasn't going to turn around and check! Skids and Mudflap didn't see what happened next, but just before the Decepticon was about to launch an attack, the door swung open and headlights beamed straight at him! The vehicle charged at the Decepticon full speed! It swerved and transformed in a glimmering shine of gold that pounced on top of the desk, and lunged down on the Decepticon! Both meches collided in a one on one death match! The Cybertronian battle cries forced the twins to look at what in Pit was going on! When the twins looked, the headlights were flashing and being waved all over the place as the second mech bashed his fists into the other mech's head and maneuvered around his opponent's attacks! The first mech was obviously an equally strong warrior, but not nearly as skilled as the second. The brawl ended when the second mech got behind the first mech, tackled him to the floor, and cracked his neck in half with a flick of his wrists. All, which he made look too easy!
The triumphant warrior stood over the dying Decepticon. The floor was filling up with a puddle of energon leaking from the Decepticon's neck. His vocalizing units were snapped. It looked like he wasn't going to get the chance to say any last words. With one last look at the Decepticon's fading optics, the golden warrior stomped down on the Decepticon's head. He watched the fluids leak out and soak with the blue energon puddle.
"Another kill." The warrior said mournfully. Then his tone changed completely. "What were you idiots doing, hiding under a desk?" He snarled. He didn't even have to turn around to know they were there.
"Sunstreaker." They said in unison.
"Get out of there! Where's Sideswipe?" Sunstreaker growled. He stood and watched Skids and Mudflap crawl out. Mudflap stood up and tried to lift Skids up as well, but Skids' crippled legs still couldn't hold him up. So Skids and Mudflap sat on the floor. The twins were quickly reminded of some differences between Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Sunstreaker still hated them and was in no mood to carry Skids like his brother had done out of the kindness of his spark.
"Y'know you could help." Skids grunted.
"I would help if I respected you! Sunstreaker sneered. "Now where's Sideswipe?"
"He left us here. Said we gotta stay hidden til he got back." Mudflap said.
"When did you see him last?" The twins looked at each other.
"'Bout two breams ago?." Skids guessed. Sunstreaker stomped his foot in frustration and started running out the door.
"Wait! Where you goin'?" Skids called. Sunstreaker kept running as he answered.
"There's a bomb in this place and I've got to get Sideswipe out of here before its too late!"
"BOMB?" Mudflap exclaimed.
"Wait! What about us?" Skids hollered. Sunstreaker turned around this time.
"Have Ratchet or some other Autobot help you out! They're right behind me and they'll be here in a half bream."
"But with dat bomb, we dunno if we got half a bream!" Mudflap argued.
"Not my problem." Sunstreaker said while turning away.
"YOU PIECE OF SLAG! YOU CAN'T LEAVE US TA GET BLOWN UP! WE CAN'T GET BLOWN UP! WE'RE AUTOBOTS LIKE YOU!" Skids hollered.
"Lousy Autobots." Sunstreaker murmured as he transformed. Mudflap sprang to his feet, and though he stumbled from the affects of his low energy levels, he ran after Sunstreaker. Sunstreaker wheeled out in a hurry and left the two in the dark. As Sunstreaker franticly looked for Sideswipe he did actually consider going back for Skids and Mudflap. He could still hear Mudflap's voice yelling for him to come back. He wasn't sure if it was real or in his memories. But he kept on driving saying, " No can do, glitches. I've got my own twin to worry about."
Not far away, Sideswipe laid motionless on the floor. He was clearly alive, but still stunned from the brutal Decepticon attack. The two Decepticon's who made this attack, were standing over him bickering over what to do with the body, now that they had it. Should they turn it over to Megatron? Should they kill him now? Suddenly their bickering was interrupted when a Decepticon scout burst into the room.
"Autobots are returning! Four including this one are within the base! An Autobot warrior just killed the commander, two Autobots are injured, and the rest will be firing on us if we don't get out of here!"
"Did you set the bomb?"
"Of course I did! It should go off in eight klicks."
"Excellent! Decepticons! Rise to the skies and retreat."
"But what about this Autobot?" The scout asked, kicking at Sideswipe's arm.
"Since we've taken the trouble to take him down..." the Decepticon aimed his gun directly at the center of Sideswipe's head. The mental part of Sideswipe that wasn't stunned, and was still aware of what was going on around him, tried to scream. But he couldn't. Not only was he scared to death, but he was disappointed. If this was the way he was going offline, had he made good use of his life? Absolutely not! Yeah he had a great life, but he also screwed up a lot. And he wasn't done screwing up. He still had a life he wanted to live, and it was going to be taken away from him while he was unfairly beat down. It couldn't end this way! A good portion of his processor was still stunned and not functioning completely up to speed. He didn't stand a chance at trying to call for help now. If he was capable of calling for help he would have called for Sunny to come save him a long time ago. But it was impossible.
Suddenly the engines of what sounded like a hundred Autobots roared outside! The Decepticon with the gun to Sideswipe lowered his gun and looked at the doors. Without warning, the doors swung open at the mighty force of Sunstreaker! And Sunstreaker alone. The Decepticons laughed.
"Just one puny Autobot?" One Decepticon cackled.
"Make it two!" Sunstreaker yelled. Sunstreaker unleashed a powerful blast of emotion through the bond to Sideswipe! The blast brought Sideswipe's stunned systems back online completely and cured his paralysis! Sideswipe sprang up, kicked at the nearest Decepticon and sent him flying backwards into the wall! Sunstreaker advanced on another Decepticon and shot directly at his spark! The battle raged on! Shots fired left and right! Sunstreaker gracefully flipped and dodged his way through the battlefield to join Sideswipe in the middle. Back to back they exchanged looks and then separated again to carry out their plan, which they perfected to work in several different situations. Jet Judo!
Sunstreaker lashed out at a jet styled Decepticon, grabbed him and threw him over his head towards the wall. The Decepticon transformed and made a quick aerial u-turn! Sideswipe was on top of the jet in seconds! He kicked at the wings and forced the jet out of flight pattern! The Decepticon fought against Sideswipe and tried to throw him off. But Sideswipe hung on for dear life like he was riding a bucking bronco! He finally let go when the jet was on a collision course with the wall! Sideswipe jumped at the last minute and tumbled down onto the floor. He looked up to see the jet, not colliding with the wall, but with another Decepticon jet. Sunstreaker suddenly came flying out of the fire explosion! (And landed on his feet much easier than Sideswipe landed.) Sideswipe figured he caught a ride too. The room fell completely silent except for Sideswipe's intakes and outtakes of air through his vents. It didn't do him any good physically, since he wasn't human. But it did help with calming himself down. Sunstreaker stood up and rushed over to where Sideswipe laid. Sunstreaker pulled him up to his knees and hugged him. Both twins were overjoyed to see each other, but their celebration was cut short when the flaming remnants of the jets spewed giant flames in their direction. Sunstreaker lead Sideswipe, who was still a bit shook up from the whole experience, around the fallen Decepticon bodies which Sunstreaker had slaughtered, and out of the room. Sideswipe stopped in his tracks when they were out of harm's way, but Sunstreaker tried to keep running.
"C'mon! C'mon! What are you standing around for?" Sunstreaker said while tugging at Sideswipe's shoulder. Sideswipe shrugged him off.
"We still have to shut down that bomb!"
"There's no time!"
"Yes there is! Approximately eight klicks, from what I heard from the Decepticons."
"Its too risky Sideswipe. We have to go now!"
"And go where? We were lucky that Earth's governments provided this base for us. If we lose this base, we will have nothing. Letting that bomb go off is surrendering! The Decepticons will win this round and make us vulnerable. When they win the next round, they'll make us scrap metal! This isn't like you to give up when we can still win!" Sunstreaker knew his twin was right.
"How much time do we have?"
"Approximately eight klicks." Sideswipe repeated.
"Where do we start looking?"
"We don't have to look. I can't imagine Decepticons wanting to use Earth technology, other that alt modes. So its gotta be Cybertronian. We just need to scan for it." The twins would have scanned over the whole base, but Sideswipe located it before they had to enhance a wider search. "I got it!"
"Where is it?" Sideswipe suddenly looked like he'd just realized something was wrong.
"Skids and Mudflap have it. I found the bomb and their sparks. They're exiting the west wing now."
"Wow. They made good time." Sunstreaker said bluntly as he transformed. Sideswipe followed. It didn't take long for Sideswipe to catch Sunstreaker's mistake.
"They made good time coming and going from where?" Sunstreaker was silent. He realized his mistake as well. "You didn't happen to run into them, did you?"
"Maybe." Sunstreaker grunted. That was definitely a yes.
"And now they're taking the bomb to dispose of it outside of NEST. Or at least that's what it looks like, judging by their choice of direction. Wow. Pretty bold, huh? Like they're trying to prove something." Sunstreaker stayed quiet. He knew he was busted. "What did you tell them Sunny?"